How to build new canoe gunnals?

[Eric Schatz]

I recently was given a canoe carcass. It has all of the SS screws still in the rotted out strips. Both of the inside and outside gunnals are just rounded over strips screwed together with the hull in between. Some of the ones I see online are quite a bit fancier. I'm curious how you would go about making these. Is the inside one just a square strip that has the bottom rounded over for general feel and then the outside one has a lip that covers the hull? If any one has a cross section of this that would be great. I have a full shop and can make just about anything. I'm just trying to get an idea of what is practical and ideal.

BTW I have access to maple and oak and cherry but not ash. Would Oak be ok?

[Malcolm Schweizer]

The gunwales are made of two strips glued and screwed to the sheer strake on the outside of the boat (outwale) and across the ribs on the inside of the boat (inwale). The inwale crosses over the ribs with gaps in the ribs which leaves a space convenient for belaying lines.
image.jpg

Note: you can't see it in the picture, but the sheer strake on this boat is mahogany. The others are cedar. The inner mahogany strip is the sheer strake. The outer maple strip is the outwale, and the inner mahogany strip the inwale.

If your boat is fiberglass, wood strip, or other construction without ribs, you can route notches in the inwale to mimicking the gap where it lays over the ribs.

White oak is excellent for gunwales, but not red oak which does not bend as well. Cherry and maple will work as well, but also are less bendable.

[Eric Schatz]

I would like to leave those gaps for tie downs in mine also. Do i need to make those on the inwale (like yours)? Also, do I need to scarf joint them together? I've never been able to get a piece of lumber that long.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Either/or, or both. If you have a router table, use a round bit to make slots with round ends. It has a nice look. Make sure you line them up if doing both inwales and outwales. You can do a very simple scarf and land a screw either side of it.

Doing both sides allows for a simple crossover lashing to be made with small line. Also it allows a deck tarp to be lashed over the edge so water doesn't shed back into the boat.